While Europa Report isn't mind-blowing and doesn't bring any groundbreaking ideas to the table, it is still watchable at least once. This is a situation when you make the most of what you have. A good budget sci-fi.

The performances are ok, the story is a basic sci-fi one, CGI is very noticeable but they tried, I think I even spotted a couple of good sets and a good matte painting.

The story works mostly because of the characters, which are relatable and imperfect. Their motives and deeds are understandable.

While the pseudo-documentary style opens new options and provides for interesting scenes, they never do anything creative with it besides some fast cut-ins for you to spot. My biggest complaint is that sometimes it gets overly sentimental and somewhat tells you to feel the same, which just doesn't work with the style they've established.

A good one-time sci-fi watch if you thought you've seen it all and if you are desperately looking for good low budget ones.

31 July 2013. Jumbled, disjointed. This chaotic but visually compelling sci fi movie is about a space attempt to one of Jupiter's moons. Europa has the look and production value of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien and the more recent Love (2011) about survival in space. However it tries too hard being classy. The use of voice-over is unnecessary and excessive. Attempts at the Blair Witch Project documentary approach is uneasily combined with the more stark Kubrick photography. Finally the flash back and flash forwards leave the audience spinning in confusion and disorientation.

If only the director had just simplified and shot the movie in the traditional linear footage like the 50s Forbidden Planet or even First Space on Venus, this movie had the potential to be a great. It had the look some of the best space visuals of any sci fi movie to date. It had serious intention, but the sounds in space and no space-time lag in communications between the space craft and Mission control are real major technical flaws for a movie like this. It had had poor editing making it confusing almost to the point of being unwatchable. Some of the dialogue and space craft activity were penetrating and appealingly jargon-oriented really capturing the ambiance of real space exploration but at other times seemed just too banal, used for impressing an uneducated audience that in these days seems a pretty sad commentary of how the producers or director thought of its audience. The non-linear, broken time flow made the movie into a hodge-podge of scenes that only made sense to the editor or director. The revealed reason for the communication lost, scenes that the audience was subjected to twice wouldn't have been unpredictable as described, it would have been monitored and not unexpected. This seems to be just a convenient script device that only weakens the storyline. Another problem was the strangely edited debate scene about going out exploring which was literally broken in half and completed after another completely different scene was inserted. The approach landing scene was visually amazing, but there wasn't enough of the close up of the landing to be brilliantly, dazzlingly and later one of the Mission specialists gets to look out at a close up of a fantastic landscape while the audience only get to see the specialist looking out the window and only later does the audience get to see what the specialist saw after the fact. Finally even as fantastic as the visual photography and set design and landscape design were, there were too many photographic style changes that prevented this movie from flowing smoothly nor allowing the story to become an intimate compelling close up personal story for the audience. Instead the photographic changes became a background distraction.

In one of the major crises scenes its power was taken away by too much previous random, almost pretentious space banter and not enough film time devoted to building up this crucial scene. Nevertheless it was one of the best scenes of the movie, well done both visually and sound wise. Another great scene was the disembarkation from the space craft that was so authentic and visceral, though too much of the 2001 movie helmet-face shot was used instead of allowing the audience to have an extended personal experience of wonderful out of this world landscape shots. Why there was only one space explorer out there seems odd too. Even this great sequence seemed off when there was a little amount of sample time left then suddenly became time to leave then mysteriously all the crew's concern over radiation levels seems to disappear and miraculously there's more time to explore further creating a bewildering sense of incongruity with the script plot outline overtaking the consistency and believability of the story. Even later there is a final face shot but not of what the astronaut was looking at creating more of a disconcerting unnecessary puzzle. At some point two thirds the way through the movie the continuing anomalies that keep piling up in juxtaposition of the overall tone and presentation of this movie. The more authentic and believable, documentary tone of this movie is in contradiction to the number of calamities that befall this space voyage making it more of a stretch to suspend judgment of its theatrical veracity. Instead of focusing on extended scenes of great potency to captivate the audience, the script and director have chosen quantity over sustained quality, allowing the film's integrity to grow dangerously thin. It's almost as if there were at least two or more short films occurring in this movie. The film also eventually becomes more unclear as to what is supposedly recorded film that the audience is seeing and what is just the movie presentation itself that supposedly wasn't recorded but was shot to help fill in important details for the audience, just more distracting, off-putting film experiences. 2010 (1984) a follow up to 2001 with its own voyage to Jupiter had similar events occur in respect to Europa Report but which Europa was able to exceed in the space adventure depiction of its story but also fell short compared to 2010 in its overall movie presentation and storyline coherence. Perhaps the greatest mistake was the use of the flashback technique which in fact became at least two different flashbacks destroying some of the mystery and unknown of first discovery as if the audience was really only getting a compilation of a report instead of being able to be apart of this amazing visually dazzling space adventure themselves.

Overall, this movie of really great potential and visual photographic power and narrative style is similar to Moon (2009) but became even more of a great disappointment with its poor editing and scene selection that only serve to create a massive jumble of confusion, difficult to follow and comprehend and enjoy. If only that director had stayed with a simple presentation this would have been a great cinematic achievement.

The gimmick of using supposedly found footage has been rampant in movies since the huge success of the biggest of all the found footage films, "The Blair Witch Project". After all, despite a minuscule budget, the film made many millions and is about the most successful film per dollar spent of any film in history. Many young filmmakers with very limited budgets have tried to copy this success with varying results. A few other films made up of supposedly discovered footage by supposedly dead people have worked very well (such as "Troll Hunter") but most are a dreary and repetitious lot-- bereft of originality and frightfully cheap and dull. In light of this huge proliferation of found footage films, I was very disappointed when I saw that "Europa Report" was yet another one of these films. Imagine my surprise, however, when I discovered that it was actually GOOD!

The film consists of video sent back to Earth from the first manned space flight past our moon. In this case, it's going to one of the moons of Jupiter--one which MIGHT just be able to sustain life! However, you know from the beginning of the film that the crew did not make it--and their journey is reconstructed in this movie.

"Europa Report" is not a film for everyone. While it is sci-fi, it's not a "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" sort of affair with lots of action, music and distant future happenings. Instead, it's meant to be as realistic as possible--which is NOT something I think most viewers want! Space voyages are SLOW and dull--and so the chances of exciting stuff are slim. While the film has lots of exciting moments later in the picture, up until then it all seems a bit slow...but possible. I liked this about the film--some clearly won't.

The bottom line is that if you want realism, then this film is right up your alley. Plus with a very limited budget, it manages to look great--especially the takeoff sequence. Well worth seeing, exquisitely directed and it's a film that gets better and better as it progresses to a terrific ending.